Republic of Ireland v Poland Football
Results

The Republic
of Ireland has played Poland more often in friendly matches than any other
international football team [1].

The two
countries have played each other 26 times, 23 of which were friendlies,
stretching right back to 1938. The first meeting between Ireland and Poland
took place at the Military Stadium in Warsaw on the 22nd of May 1938.
A crowd of 40,000 watched the Irish take a 6-0 trouncing from the Poles.
Four goals from Piontek and two from Wodars gave a comfortable win to
the home side. Somewhat bizarrely a claim by the Irish that the ball was
too soft led to a change of the ball at half time. It didn't help the
Irish performance though as they conceded three goals in each half. The
Irish team on the day included the great Jackie
Carey of Manchester United.

Ireland
V Poland - Dalymount Park 1938

It was
not until the twentieth meeting of the two teams in 1991 that they took
to the field against each other in a competitive match. It was a Euro
1992 qualifier at Lansdowne
Road (now the Aviva
Stadium) on the 1st of May 1991. A very strong Irish team, under Jack
Charlton, could only manage a 0-0 draw.

The second
competitive match between Ireland and Poland took place almost six months
later in Poznan, again in the Euro 1992 qualification campaign. Despite
leading 3-1, through goals from Paul McGrath, Andy Townsend and Tony Cascarino
and with just 15 minutes remaining, the Poles rallied to snatch a 3-3
draw. This late slip-up effectively meant that Ireland would not qualify
for the Euro 1992 finals. A win would have ensured that Ireland would
have qualified ahead of England on goal difference.

[1]
In his book The
Team That Jack Built Paul Rowan suggests that the FAI matches
against Poland were arranged for the personal commercial imperatives of
some FAI officials rather than for football reasons.